Kajang by-election is not beneficial for both the country and people
Ahmad Mustapha Hassan, The Ant Daily
A lot is being said about the Kajang by-election. The event had taken the people by surprise. There was no necessity for one to be held. It only creates further insecurity among the people and projects a bizarre scenario. Not only will public money be wasted but time, energy and productive work will also have to be sacrificed.
PKR may have a national agenda in doing this but it is most unfair to subject the people and the country to such wastage. PKR, as I had written earlier, is poorly managed and has become a thorn to the stability of the Pakatan Rakyat coalition.
The other leaders in component parties PAS and DAP must have sanctioned what had occurred but it is doubtful whether they had done so out of sincerity. Whether these two component parties like it or not, their standing is also affected. How is it possible for leaders in these two component parties to associate themselves with such waste, especially when it affects the welfare of the people?
From the look of it, these two parties were never involved in great detail about this move. Sanction was given more from after the fact, to keep the semblance of unity in the pack.
Pakatan must show that it practised democracy. It should and must demonstrate that it believes in true democracy in all its form, structure, content, words and deeds. PKR might act as the leader of the pack but the other component parties must advise PKR as to the suitability and the logic of forcing this by-election.
It may solve the problems faced by PKR but it may hurt the future of the coalition. To the people, this is an act to solve the internal squabbles in the party but causing inconveniences to the people of Kajang.
Critics have been blaming Umno Baru for being inconsiderate to all its partners but the very same culture seems to permeate Pakatan with PKR doing the unimaginable just to save its future.
In the first place, were there any complaints that PKR’s Lee Chin Cheh had neglected the constituency he was representing? If there was none, it was really “patriotic” of him to resign and pave the way for a by-election. But blind party “patriotism” is not a virtue.
Did he realise that he had completely let down his constituents by doing so? He could never be trusted by his voters and his political career has come to an end.
He sacrificed for the sake of his own party but that sacrifice meant nothing to his voters. To his voters, he had simply sacrificed their trust.
According to Rafizi Ramli, PKR’s strategic director, the move is to thwart any attempt by the Umno Baru/BN government to snatch Selangor through a declaration of emergency status as in the case of Kelantan in 1977.
The Kelantan government at that time was facing internal party problems and squabbles that had affected the administration of the state. But in the case of Selangor, only PKR was having party problems and the other two partners in the coalition were free from any internal dissension. The reasoning therefore does not hold water.
